Iain Mansfield

Is a university degree still worth the paper it is written on? That rather depends on whether a student is graded on their own work or on that of an AI passed off as their own. With three-quarters of universities continuing to make use of remote, uninvigilated ‘exams’, that question answers itself. The hundreds of thousands of students who are receiving their A-Level and GCSE results this month do so with the confidence that their grades reflect a gold standard in assessment. With standardised national assessments, produced by national exam boards, regulated by Ofqual and administered primarily via invigilated, in-person exams, our system of school assessments is designed to maximise fairness, comparability and integrity.

The new prime minister’s eye catching opening announcement on education contains important truths, interwoven with equally important misconceptions. In implementing his agenda, he has the potential to do much good, but also much harm. Most fundamentally, the design of the school curriculum is not the primary cause of the rapidly expanding crisis of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet). Neither is it the key driver of youth unemployment – most recently measured at 16.4 per cent, close to the highest level since 2015. The main culprits are instead the inflation-busting rises in minimum wage and national insurance contributions, the Employment Rights Act and a buckling welfare system which incentivises inactivity.

Britain does not have a world-class higher education system. We have a small number of truly world-class universities, able to compete in the top tier of global research. We have pockets of excellence elsewhere, as well as vocationally focused courses that equip people for jobs such as engineering and nursing. But we also have far too many courses that are poor quality, low value or simply not needed. In 15 subjects, more than a quarter of graduates earned less than the National Living Wage after five years A third of graduates are not in graduate jobs. At least 30 per cent of degrees do not deliver a total positive return.

Last week, the government made two major announcements on science and innovation. With backing from the Prime Minister and Chancellor, Science Secretary Peter Kyle laid out a detailed plan to ‘turbocharge AI’. The new ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’ set out how the government will support AI to boost the economy and improve the productivity of the public sector. Given the Labour’s questionable commitment to growth, this was a rare ray of good hope.

Wales has long been an embarrassment for any aspiring Labour education secretary. While the Conservative government's school reforms shot England up the international league tables – in the PISA rankings it rose from 25th to 13th in reading and 27th to 11th in maths between 2009 and 2022 – performance in Labour-run Wales and in SNP-run Scotland has declined. Labour has always been the enemy of excellence – which it wrongly confuses with elitism These three UK nations provided a perfect real-time experiment with which to assess the merits of different education philosophies. The tried-and-tested methods of phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum and firm behavioural policies won decisively.

The Prime Minister has summoned the vice chancellors of several universities to Downing Street to read them the riot act over pro-Palestine protests taking place on their campuses. But this meeting will need to have more impact than Rishi Sunak's ineffectual gathering of police chiefs in February over public order – which has led to far too little improvement in the situation.   Tomorrow’s meeting could not be more timely, with the campus protests in the UK now at a turning point. Last week, in a new low, the senior leadership of Goldsmiths, University of London surrendered to the lion’s share of demands by their pro-Palestine student protestors. Even the university's recognition of the gold standard IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is under threat.